Tips for helping you survive in the world of DayZ

Note that this is full of spoilers as most of the fun in the game is figuring this stuff out on your own. If you’re OK with that, read on! We cover the basic rules of survival, how to start out, survive, get vehicles and deal with bandits/ be a bandit yourself.

The basic rules of survival:

Rule #1 Don’t waste your time going for low loot spawns, too many zombies not enough loot… Use Risk vs Reward thinking when going into any town.
Rule #2 Don’t go anywhere without Morphine and Bandages, You’ll need it to cure bleeding and broken bones.
Rule #3 When you’re in Cherno or Elektro, it’s a kill or be killed world. Show no mercy for you shall receive none.
Rule #4 NEVER shoot or melee in 3rd person view, the sights are off and you actually hit lower than the cross-hairs.

Starting Out

– Spawned, check your location, it appears briefly in the bottom right hand corner.
– Look at http://unfair.co/dayz-mod-map-with-loot-and-vehicle-spawn-locations/, see if you are at least 10min run from Cherno or Elektro and find your way there.
– Hit the big industrial buildings outside of the city and try to find an Axe, a Knife and Road Flares.
– Stealth your way to the Hospital for medical supplies and loot anything you find on the way. Make sure to keep an eye out for other players in windows and on rooftops. Listen carefully for footsteps, gun shots and avoid others at all cost.
– Hit the supermarket and med/high loot spawns in the residential areas to try to find matches and a Pistol then GTFO ASAP.
– If you have the inventory space pick up Crossbow Bolts, you are gonna need them later.
– If you’re having a hard time doing the above, just try to get an Axe and Medical Supplies then get the hell outta town.

Surviving

– Make trips to all the Med/High Loot places, Deer Stands, Farms, Supermarkets, Industrial and Military loot spawns.
– Farms to find a Crossbow, Supermarket for Camping Supplies, Industrial for a toolbox, Military for GPS and 24-slot Coyote Backpack.
– Keep an eye out for animals to gut for food.
– Drink all the Soda you find immediately to stay hydrated. Don’t bother wasting space on Soda if you have a Water Canteen.
– Same goes for canned food which also helps keep your blood level up.
– Keep at least 4 or more pieces of cooked meat on you at all times to heal up in case you get in trouble.
– Manage your temperature, if it starts to go below 38 degrees then find shelter, cozy up next to a fire or use a heat-pack.
– Try to keep your Blood over 9000! Any lower and you risk serious injury, aka, passing out while zombies eat your face.

Camps & Vehicles

– If you have a 16-slot backpack and a toolbox by now then make some room in your inventory for vehicle parts.
– You will want at least 4 slots free in your main inventory and 12 slots free in your backpack. This allows 2 large vehicle parts to be stored in your bag and 1 in your inventory.
– Find a wrecked vehicle and repair it! Check http://unfair.co/dayz-mod-map-with-loot-and-vehicle-spawn-locations/ for vehicle spawns, not all vehicles can be repaired. Easy way to see if its repairable is if it can be entered or not which then tells you what parts need repair.
– Once you have a Vehicle drive around to all the Supermarkets and High Residential spawn areas to find a tent.
– Fortify a camp with your tent surrounded by Sandbags, barb wire and tank traps to stop vehicles from running over your tent and destroying everything.
– Make sure to save your tent and vehicle by mouse wheel menu and then choose Save.

Bandit
– Grab a military weapon/ammo and go to any location you want and set up shop to kill people who are passing through. Cherno, Electro to kill newbies. The main Airfield to kill equally geared players.
– Hit the industrial areas to also find more military grade ammo.
– A Ghillie Suit, Night Vision Goggles and a Range Finder will also be very useful.

End-Game

– Find Land to claim.
– Gather Supplies.
– Build a base with even more Sandbags, barb wire and tank traps.
– Go out Raiding other bases!

Pro Tip

– Don’t bother picking up any primary weapons till you find a Crossbow. The Axe is far superior to kill zombies silently. Although this leaves you prone to being killed by bandits, but they would probably kill you anyways as they have better military grade weapons.
– DayZ only allows the player to melee/shoot when standing still or walking. So when engaging in melee you can dodge zombie attacks by walking and hitting at the same time.
– Flares are your best friend, they can be used to lure a group of Zombies away from loot spawns and out of buildings. Beware this gives away your location, so keep an eye out for bandits. Reload your stack of flares as you find them.
– You make more noise and move a bit faster when crouch running with your Primary Weapon out. So equip your Pistol when crouch running through grassy areas past zombie for only 1 noise level.
– With primary weapon you can strafe crouch run for 1 noise level through grassy areas making the same noise as crouch running forward with pistol.
– Strafing left or right while walking is actually a tad bit faster than going forwards without making anymore noise.
– If you are completely surrounded by zombies but they don’t see you yet then you can slowly crawl away for 0 noise level. Do this by equipping your primary weapon, go prone and hold shift to slowly crawl right behind a zombie.
– With your pistol you can kind of slow crawl for 0 noise level by using W+A, W+D or S but only through grass areas.
– Stand walk through most zombie infected areas, then if you see a zombie looking towards your direction crouch walk. Only need to prone when they are at least 15m away from you.
– Zombies seem to be able to see/hear through walls, if you are in a building and zombie is passing right by you get ready to take care of business.
– To lose zombies chasing you use the terrain to your advantage. Run them up and down steep hills, zig zag up/down it to run faster. Leap over fences and run through buildings or over bridges to put some distance between you then start to crouch run.
– Also Once you have distance from them run into the dark woods and start to crouch run in the shadows to lose aggro. Then finally prone in the shadows behind a tree and crawl away to safety. Or if no woods around try to break line of sight around a corner of a building then immediately go prone.
– Never fire your weapon around an infected area, if you get zombie aggro in town then crouch run out to an open field. When out of town start stand running to get some distance and then kill ‘em all.
– Militar areas can have Mophine, also try to kill military type of zombies for extras. Can find Morphine in industrial areas but is even more rare and risky.
– dayzmap.info/ is good for searching for individual item spawns where as http://unfair.co/dayz-mod-map-with-loot-and-vehicle-spawn-locations/ is nice to see all the different type of spawn areas.
– You can use distant zombies as an indicator of other players in an area. I always ask myself when overlooking a village etc. “am I close enough to have spawned those zeds or did another player in the village spawn them?” This has saved my ass on numerous occasions.

If you have any more tips, feel free to put them in the comments below and I’ll add them as I see fit.

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